ProjectsI like instigating things, taking ideas we dream up and making them happen. Here are some of the projects I dreamed into being: Interversity Online Teaching and Learning Cooperative It's a *dis*organization, to be sure, a bureaucracy-free zone, but the point is to give people a place to teach and learn, to play, to do things they can't do elsewhere. So far, it mostly consists of a number of discussion lists and a few websites. I plan to start offering my own "courses" soon. I provide support, a listmom, sysop, website manager, whatever folks need in order to make their place work. I started the Writery in 1994. After some early, very modest attempts to create an online writing center, I was able to get funding for hiring a staff, space on the University of Missouri's web server, and time to devote to developing what I hoped would become a "writing-intensive online learning environment". The name, which I stole from Sally Foster (who currently coordinates the Writery), was meant to evoke a "third place" to borrow terminology from Ray Oldenburg's book, The Great Good Place, which describes the value of "non-institutionalized" places where people just hang out & talk. The Writery was one of the first online writing centers to stress interaction over information dissemination. We welcomed anyone in the world who was interested in help with their writing, and we had the pleasure of working with people from all parts of the world and all walks of life. It was fun. The MU Institute for Instructional Technology MUIIT, which has since become ET@MO, was born in the aftermath of the 1994 Annual Computers and Writing Conference, which we hosted at the University of Missouri. We'd formed a conference planning committee with representatives from a variety of schools and departments. After the conference, the group wanted to keep talking and to broaden participation. I helped convene several informal meetings with representatives of departments and programs from across campus to discuss the implications of technology on education. Those discussions led to the creation of the institute, which developed a series of workshops, demonstrations, institutes, and speakers to encourage faculty to embrace and explore technologies that might transform their teaching. RhetNet: A Dialogic Publishing (Ad)Venture The idea for RhetNet was born in the fall of 1993. While I was at the East Central Writing Centers Association Conference at Ball State University, Bob Child, a graduate student at Purdue, collared me and asked whether I'd be interested in starting an online journal for composition and rhetoric studies. At the time, there was no online journal for the field. Bob soon dropped out of the discussion, but others joined it, and by late spring 1994 RhetNet was up and running. It became an intentionally experimental project rather than an attempt to create a conventional journal. We tried to explore the shape of publishing online by letting things evolve naturally according to the tendencies of online communities. We captured and published conversations, mostly from discussion lists. We created two "books," each of which was littered with forms providing readers a chance to respond to the text. Alas, though many people participated in RhetNet's publication during its brief heyday (roughly 1994-1997), the production department consisted almost entirely of one person: me. So when I went to NCTE and became too busy to tend RhetNet's conversations, it quickly faded from view. CCCC Online The Conference on College Composition and Communication's annual convention is one of the biggest events of the year for composition and rhetoric teachers and scholars, but only a small proportion of the field's members can attend the event. It occurred to me early in 1994 that the net was our opportunity to address that problem. I proposed to the organization's chair at the time that we create a corresponding online conference that would co-exist with and interact with the face2face convention. CCCC Online thrived for several years before fading away due to neglect and the emergence of the web as a normal part of all NCTE events.
Invited PresentationsFeatured Speaker
"It's Fun to Have Fun, But You Have to Know How" Keynote Speaker
"Hopeful Monsters and Interversity: A Writing Center Legacy" Workshop Leader
Ball State University Keynote Speaker
South Central Writing Center Association Conference Keynote Speaker
"Interversity and Other Explorations: Getting Beyond Z" Featured Speaker
"Interversity: Reinventing Humanism in a World of Wires or,
Technololapalooza, the Future of Culture, and Other Impending
Adventures" Workshop and Consultation
"Collaboration and Community Online: Some Tools and
Practices and Practice with Tools" Featured Speaker
"Distance Education or Interversity? Hope & Hype,
Migration & Transformation, or Distance Education
with-or-without Distance and Other Impending Adventures (because a
long title is a good title)" Featured Speaker
Faculty Development/Instructional Technology Consultation
Faculty Development/Instructional Technology Keynote Speaker
"Mutating Toward Interversity, or We Have the Technology, Let's Transmogrify the Composition Classroom"
The Greater St. Louis English Teachers' Association & The Gateway Writing
Project Featured Speaker
CCCC Winter Workshop Featured Speaker
"MOOs and URLs: The Sounds of Writing in the Electronic Village" Keynote Address
"Interversity: Convergence & Transformation, or Discovering the
Revolution that Already Happened"
Keynote Address
"(Net)Rats
in the Cathedral: Introducing New Technologies,
New Learning Environments, New Culture to Old Institutions
Featured Discussion Leader
"E-Mail/Internet and Composition Classes" Reviewed PresentationsThinking Globally, Acting Locally on the World Wide Web (workshop) Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 27-30, 1996, Milwaukee, WI. Chaos If at All Possible: MUDs as Realms of Self-Organizing Interest (presentation/discussion) Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 27-30, 1996, Milwaukee, WI. Online Writing Centers: Pedagogy, Politics, and Practical Concerns (workshop) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC, March 17-21, 1995. The World of Computers and Writing: A Carnival of Delights (workshop) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC, March 17-21, 1995. Politics: The Conflicts between Humanists and Technologists (paper) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC, March 17-21, 1995. Writing Centers as TechnoProvocateurs (paper) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC, March 17-21, 1995. Listen to the Whisperings of the Net: Ex Post Facto Editing in Academic Publishing(paper/discussion) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC, March 17-21, 1995. Extending Classroom Walls: Using the Internet to Teach Writing and Literature (workshop) National Council of Teachers of English Convention, Orlando, FL, November 16-21, 1994. Introduction to Electronic Mail and Global Networks for Teaching and Scholarship (workshop) Conference on College Composition and Communication, Nashville, TN, March 16-20, 1994. Making Our Way from Print to VR: A Stop at a MOO (paper/demonstration) Missouri Research and Education Network Annual Conference, "Making Your Connection Count: Expanding Your Access to Information," March 13-15, 1994, Columbia, MO. Casting the Net: Local & Global Learning Environments (discussion/demonstration, with John Wedman) Fourth Annual MU Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO, March 2-3, 1994. The Permeable Boundaries of Cyberspace, or How Many Times Do We Have to Kill the Author? (paper) Third Annual MU English Graduate Student Conference, Columbia, MO, February 3-4, 1994. Computorials Redux: Revising the Writing Center World (discussion/demonstration, with E. Melissa Deutsch and Michael O'Conner) Annual Midwest Writing Center Association Conference, St. Louis, MO, October 1-2, 1993. Wild Child: IRC as the Subversive Cousin of ENFI (Electronic Networking for Interaction (paper/demonstration) Computers and Writing Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, May 18-21, 1993. Using Network Mailing Lists (discussion, with Robert Yates) Missouri Research and Education Network Annual Conference, Columbia, MO, March 14-16, 1993. The Rhetoric of Visual Thinking: Rethinking 'Critical Thinking' in a Writing Intensive Course (paper, co-authored with Martha Patton) MU English Graduate Student Conference, Columbia, MO, March 1993. Teaching and Learning at Warp Speed, or Who Needs Classrooms Anymore? (paper) MU English Graduate Students Conference, March 1992. Publications of Various Sorts"How Many Technoprovocateurs Does It Take to Create Interversity?" in Taking Flight with OWLs: Examining Electronic Writing Center Work, edited by James Inman and Donna Sewell, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. An exhortation to writing center folks to make diligent their efforts to envision the world beyond the conventional university and to act assertively on those visions. Includes the clearest portrayal of what I mean by interversity that I've published in print to date. "At Home in the MUD: Writing Centers Learn to Wallow." in High Wired: On the Design, Use, and Theory of Educational MOOs, edited by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik. University of Michigan Press, 1998. An assertion (with examples from my computer-classroom days and from The Online Writery) that to the extent we're able to go beyond doing-what-we're-doing-only-online (using MOOs, in this case, as the means of going beyond), we may in fact begin doing what we're really supposed to be doing: allowing play and conversation to flourish.
Various bits in Works and Days 29/30, Vol. 15, Nos. 1 & 2,
1997: Originally these were email message posted to the TicToc Project discussion list as part of conversations leading up to a symposium held in Chicago, May 1996, hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago. The list discussions, and related texts, comprised this issue of Works and Days. Two of the texts above were originally delivered as speeches prior to being posted to the TicToc list. Writing Online: A Student's Guide to the Internet and the World Wide Web (co-authored with Nick Carbone). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Designed to be a sort of "foot stool" to help people get over the initial and sometimes frustrating humps of getting online and learning to work in the online world. Includes discussion of issues facing folks new to the net. Nick and I did the first two editions of the book together, then I turned it over to him for the third edition. "TechnoTreachery: Play Infiltrates School" in About Campus, Jossey-Bass, March-April 1996, Vol. 1, No. 1. pp. 20-23. About how MOOs can introduce play into the often too-self-serious world of the academy and why this is a Very Good Thing.
(co-authored with Michael Day and Rebecca Rickly) Computer Networking and Scholarly Communication
in the
Twenty-First-Century University. Edited by Teresa M. Harrison and
Timothy Stephen. Albany, NY: SUNY UP, 1996. pp. 291-311. A defense of realtime discussion tools, which in the academy are often considered to be frivolous games and wasters of time and computing resources. We argued that those programs are legitimate scholarly and teaching tools. "When Worlds Collide: Merging Face-to-face and Virtual Academic Conferences" (co-authored with Marcy Bauman and Russ Hunt) The New Writing Environment: Writers at Work in a World of Technology. London: Springer, 1996. The annual Computers and Writing Conference in 1994 (which I chaired) was the second to host an online conference as well as a face-2-face event (University of Michigan, 1993, was the first). This article reviewed and analyzed the various ways the two connected events worked together, sometimes well, sometimes not. "It's Fun to Have Fun But You Have to Know How! or, How Cavorting on the Net Will Save the Academy" (co-authored with Rebecca Rickly) Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1, 1995. I think it's important to quote Dr. Suess at every opportunity. This was the first time I did it in a peer-reviewed academic essay. Becky and I argue that the interactivity on the net tends to make interaction more fun than the usual stuff in classroom and professional communication, and that fun is a worthwhile goal in itself. Work HistoryPresident & Chief Instigator: Interversity Inc
October 2000—present. Interversity Inc is a small consulting firm (I'm the only consultant) which specializes in hosting online communities and facilitating online conversation. In practice, that generally means I host and manage discussion lists for clients who need flexibility, customization, and responsive user support. I've also done several projects that involve creating online readers for writing classes. Interversity Teaching and Learning Cooperative is a (very) non-profit project that is supported by Interversity Inc and by the communities that use its resources. this project also involves hosting discussion lists and websites, but I hope to offer online courses soon and hope that others will follow suit. Website Manager: National Council of Teachers of English
August 1997—October 2000 I was hired by NCTE to "enhance the organization's internet presence," a nicely vague mission. The site has grown considerable since, and as it developed I tried to emphasize interactivity and community, making it as much a place that members and others could help build, a place to make contact with other teachers and with staff members, as a place for the organization to provide information and services (though those things are important, too). Learning Technologies Coordinator: University of Missouri Learning Center
August 1990—August 1997 While I was at MU's Learning Center I was fortunate enough to work with and for some terrific people who help create good conditions for trying out new ideas. As a result, I was able to instigate a few new projects that I'm proud to have contributed to, including The Online Writery, the MU Institute for Instructional Technology (now ET@MO), RhetNet: A Dialogic Publishing (Ad)Venture, and CCCC Online. Teacher: University of Missouri
August 1988—May 1997 As a graduate student teacher I taught several sections of first-year composition and lower-level creative writing (fiction). After I took a full-time staff position in the Learning Center I continued to teach composition and technical writing for the English Department as an adjunct teacher. I was among the first group of teachers to use a computer classroom facility and provided some teacher development technology support—leading workshops, etc.—for several years. Reporter: St. Joseph News-Press/Gazette
October 1985—July 1988 I was a beat reporter, initially covering police & fire news, later moving to the city government beat. I also wrote occasional opinion columns and took a turn or two working the city desk as a copy editor. Teaching ExperienceWriting Center
Learning Center Graduate teachers at MU were required to tutor in the writing center. Tutoring fit me like a glove. Teaching tailored to each student. A chance to understand better what students needed. No grades. It was perfect. After a year I was given a half-time supervisory position in the writing center, helping with tutor training, scheduling, and evaluation. A year after that I was hired to a full-time position as assistant coordinator. Online Writing Center
Learning Center My interests turned to exploring the possibilities for writing education online. In 1994 my proposal that we develop an online writing center was approved, and my job shifted from the writing center to the Online Writery, which is an open learning environment which then included an open discussion list (which I still help manage), a MOO, and a email tutorial service that has been used by people all over the world. Composition
English Department
English Department As a master's degree candidate, I taught five sections of first-year composition over a two-year period. After I was hired as a full-time staff member, I taught sections of composition occasionally as an adjunct. In the fall of 1994, the MU English Department had its first opportunity to use computer classrooms, and I was part of the program that trained teachers to use those facilities and I taught several sections of composition there as well. I taught composition at the University of Illinois-Champaign for two semesters (fall 2000, spring 2001) and taught one section of composition at Parkland Community College (fall 2000). I also taught composition online in 1996-97 via the MU Direct distance education program, the first English courses the program ever offered. Creative Writing
English Department I loved teaching creative writing! Unfortunately, after getting my master's degree with a creative writing emphasis I switched to composition and rhetoric for my Ph.D. work and was no longer in line to teach creative writing. Creative writing classes, more than others, can be playgrounds. It's demonstrably useful to remove the shackles of grades and criteria and stern evaluation and let kids play with words and ideas. Although I haven't taught creative writing in a decade, I have kept my head in the game by participating in a community of writers and teachers online. I created CREWRT-L@lists.missouri.edu in October 1991 as a place to discuss creative writing pedagogy. The list was even featured in a story in The Chronicle of Higher Education in 1995, and it continues to thrive (though it has move to crewrt-l@interversity.org). Technical Writing
English Department
English Department I taught one section of business and technical writing at MU and one at UIUC (fall 2001). More recently, I taught two eight-week business and technical writing courses for Central Methodist University during fall 2004. Philosophical StanceTeaching Writing My approaches to teaching writing are informed by a belief that the prerequisite to learning anything well is interest, (in at least two senses of the word) and that learning is, to a great degree, closely related to play. My thinking has been influenced by writers such as John Holt, Alfie Kohn, Howard Gardner, Susan Ohanian, John Dewey, Ivan Illich, Johan Huizinga, and Dr. Suess. I think it is important that the work of students in a writing class should be connected to their lives in meaningful ways. The topics, forms, and styles they employ should emerge from their experience, their interests, and their goals, though with whatever nudges and guidance the teacher might find it useful to provide. I think the institutional and academic program goals can best be addressed in the context of students' interests, which may mean that some of the institutionally initiated course structures sometimes need to be relegated to the background or at least adjusted as necessary in order to accommodate the needs of student writers. For example, this philosophy pretty much insists on treating students as individuals, and that may mean that each student's experience in the class will be at least a little different from every other student's experience. I have run classes in the past that resembled writing centers more than conventional classrooms, with students working on widely various self-defined projects, alone or in groups, and me making the rounds, helping each individual or group keep their work moving, helping them generate ideas, helping them plan, helping them assess their progress and their work. I also believe students should be expected to take responsibility for their work and their learning; however, they need to have the requisite freedom in order to do so. In practice, that means I prefer to help them choose and define their own writing tasks and ask them throughout the process to assess their own performance. My job involves providing them with the guidance and support they need in order to achieve those tasks and helping them make good judgments about the quality of their work. Ultimately, grades should be arrived at through a collaborative process—initiated by the students, approved by the teacher. Technical Skills/ExperienceHTML Years experience: 9 Like most folks who discovered the web when Mosaic arrived on the scene, I learned HTML by studying page source and referring to online primers. As a result, I'm much more comfortable writing my own HTML than using web authoring software. I've got quite a bit of experience using the standard HTML features many web authors use: tables, server-side includes, and cascading stylesheets. Almost all the online projects I've worked on over the past six years have involved a web presence of some kind, and I served as the website manager for the National Council of Teachers of English for three years. Most of my work recently has been focused on developing templates that enable content folks to get their work online easily. A selection of pages:
Susan Ohanian's Site Programming Years experience: 7 I know enough Perl to get by. At NCTE I made extensive use of forms to allow users to submit and publish information, and I used Perl for the CGI scripts that made it possible. For the past two years I've been using PHP and MySQL almost exclusively. Discussion List Management and Administration Years experience: 12 I've managed discussion lists using Listserv, Listproc, Majordomo, Majordomo2, and Yahoogroups software. I currently use Majordomo2 along with MhonArc for archive-building and HtDig for search functions. I manage more than 300 discussion lists. Web Forum Administration Years experience: 8 I've installed and administered web-based discussion programs, including HyperNews and Ceilidh. Formal Education1/2 a PhD
English: Composition and Rhetoric I was mostly done with coursework when my attention got diverted to more fun and interesting projects than studying for exams and grinding out dissertations: I chaired the 1994 Annual Computers and Writing Conference, helped found the MU Institute for Instructional Technology (which has now morphed into ET@MO), created CCCC Online, the Online Writery, and RhetNet, a Dialogic Publishing (Ad)Venture. Let's see, should I pursue fun, challenging, useful projects or jump through somebody else's hoops to get a degree. It was, as they say, a no-brainer. Master's
English: Creative Writing (Fiction) Two accomplishments came from this degree: I produced a collection of short stories to serve as my master's portfolio that will, we must all hope and pray, never again see the light of day, and I became disgruntled with the way creative writing is conventionally taught, even when I was teaching it. I'd read enough composition pedagogy to know there was some interesting stuff going on there, so I created a discussion list, my second, in October 1991 to discuss possible intersections between creative writing and composition pedagogies. Crewrt-L@lists.missouri.edu is still going strong, and one of the many things I've learned from that community is that writing is a conversation, even (maybe especially) creative writing. Bachelor's
English: Writing Three good things happened while I was studying at Missouri Western. I got a position on the the college newspaper which helped lead to an internship with the local daily, The St. Joseph Gazette, which lead to a fulltime job as a police beat and city government beat reporter there. Great experience. Third, I met my wife, Amy. |